Sleep Issues & Heart Attack - A Good Read

Ranjan Das, CEO and MD of SAP Indian subcontinent died after a massive cardiac arrest in Mumbai on Wednesday (21-Oct-2012). One of the youngest CEOs, he was just 42 year old

What killed Ranjan Das and Lessons for Corporate India

A few months ago, many of us heard about the sad demise of Ranjan Das from Bandra, Mumbai. He was very active in sports, was a fitness freak and a marathon runner. It was common to see him run on Bandra's Carter Road . Just after Diwali, on 21st Oct, he returned home from his gym after a workout, collapse! d with a massive heart attack and died.

It was certainly a wake-up call for corporate India . However, it was even more disastrous for runners amongst us. Since Ranjan was an avid marathoner ( in Feb 09, he ran Chennai Marathon at the same time some of us were running Pondicherry Marathon 180 km away ), the question came as to why an exceptionally active, athletic person succumb to heart attack at 42 years of age.

Was it the stress?

While Ranjan had mentioned that he faced a lot of stress, that is a common element in most of our lives. We used to think that by being fit, one can conquer the bad effects of stress.

The Real Reason However, everyone missed out a small line in the reports that Ranjan used to make do with 4-5 hours of sleep. This is an earlier interview of Ranjan on NDTV in the program. Well-known cardiologist on the subject of 'Heart Disease caused by Lack of
 Sleep' have distilled the key points below in the hope it will save some of our lives.

Some Excerpts:

1. Short sleep duration ( <5 or 5-6 hours ) increased risk for high BP by 350% to 500% compared to those who slept longer than 6 hours per night.

2. Young people ( 25-49 years of age ) are twice as likely to get high BP if they sleep less.

3. Individuals who slept less than 5 hours a night had a 3-fold increased risk of heart attacks.

4. Complete and partial lack of sleep increased the blood concentrations of High sensitivity C-Reactive Protein (hs-cRP), the strongest predictor of heart attacks. Even after getting adequate sleep later, the levels stayed high!!

5. Just one night of sleep loss increases very toxic substances in body such as Interleukin-6 (IL! -6), Tumour Necrosis Factor-Alpha (TNF-alpha) and C-reactive protein (cRP). They increase risks of many medical conditions, including cancer, arthritis and heart disease.

6. Sleeping for <=5 hours per night leads to 39% increase in heart disease. Sleeping for <=6 hours per night leads to 18% increase in heart disease.

Ideal Sleep

In brief, sleep is composed of two stages: REM ( Rapid Eye Movement ) and non-REM. The former helps in mental consolidation while the latter helps in physical repair and rebuilding. During the night, you alternate between REM and non-REM stages 4-5 times.

The earlier part of sleep is mostly non-REM. During that period, your pituitary gland releases growth hormones that repair your body. The latter part of sleep is more and more REM type.

For us to be mentally alert during the day, the latter part of sleep is more important. No wonder when you wake up with an alarm clock after 5-6 hours of sleep, you are mentally irritable throughout the day (lack of REM sleep). And if you have slept for less than
 5 hours, your body is in a complete physical mess ( lack of non-REM sleep ), you are tired throughout the day, moving like a zombie and your immunity is way down.

Finally, as long-distance runners, you need an hour of extra sleep to repair the running related damage.

In conclusion:

Barring stress control, Ranjan Das did everything right: eating proper food, exercising ( marathoning! ), maintaining proper weight. But he missed getting proper and adequate sleep, minimum 7 hours. In our opinion, that killed him.

If you are not getting enough sleep ( 7 hours ), you are playing with fire, even if you have low stress.

Unfortunately, Ranjan Das is not alone when it comes to missing sleep. Many of us are doing exactly the same, perhaps out of ignorance. Please forward this mail to your colleagues/friends as possible, especially those who might be short-changing their sleep. If we can save even one young life because of this email, we would be the happiest person on earth.

Additional read at : http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2009-10-22/news/28472683_1_heart-attack-software-industry-patkai-networks


Extract from : https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!topic/mintamil/ORTw56NH1q0


The other side of the story : below

Sundarajan

View 1   PHILOSOPHICAL way of looking at it is...life is a journey of 100 kms...many take 70 to 80 years to cover it...guys like him does it in 42 years, then God say come back it is over...you have done it...NON-PHILOSOPHICAL why it happens...he did everything right....took care of his health, right habits, attitude, balanced life, healthy way handling stress (fitness freak...)4 hours of sleep was it sufficient...is that having a cumulative effect on his body...why no symptoms and a BREAKDOWN.....i keep wondering

View 2  Ranjan’s sister Kabita repents that he was not able to maintain his manhood
In fact, he was a “joru ka gulam” i.e. slave of wife. He always obeyed the dictates of his wife. He had hardly any bank account exclusively his own. All know accounts are joint accounts with his wife. Ranjan worked in the US from 1992 to 2007, bought two houses in San Francisco. During this sixteen years period he did not invited his family (parents & siblings) to his house. He got shifted to Mumbai in 2007. Only in August 2009 he once called his mother to his house in Mumbai for treatment, that too alone. Ranjan’s family except his mother never saw his home, though relatives from his wife’s side have been frequenting his house. His wife Rupa did not even liked Ranjan making a phone call to his family.

View 3 Ranjan was a big boss in his office but insignificant in his family affairs. In examination, fail in one subject means fail.  Ranjan would not have been killed if he had been correct in his own stand.

View 4 For some years his family life was not going smooth. His wife Rupa Barua (alias Rajashree) is extravagant in her spending. She is not a caring mother, discarded Ranjan’s primary kins. Poor fellow Ranjan had been digesting all these things. Moreover he became aware of that she has developed illicit relationship with other men. She is a big flirt. All these made him to make up his mind for divorce. There is information that he was discussing of filing divorce petition with some lawyer. Divorce compensation to wife in case of her proven infidelity is negligible. So, Rupa addicted to luxury killed him like a chicken.

Late Ranjan Das was administered some drug along with his food which caused cardiac arrest. After the cardiac arrest delays were made to take him to hospital, though Lilavati Hospital is just in the back side of his apartment. He was proceeded to hospital when he was almost dead. In the hospital Rupa coolly accepted his death. She, as a guardian turned down proposal of autopsy which as a procedure is done in case of sudden death of healthy people. Media was also bluffed. To maintain privacy or what so ever reason it was not allowed to go in detail. Simply said Ranjan Das passed away after a massive heart attack, which everyone found hard to believe


Also at : http://gpbaroowah.blogspot.in/2009/10/ranjan-das-wizard-of-corporate-sky.html